Scientists have unearthed a 5,000-year-old crystal dagger in the Montelirio tholos megalithic tomb.

The 21.6-centimeter-long knife has a blade made of transparent crystal and a finely carved ivory handle. Given the size of the knife, scientists believe it was carved from a crystal block at least 22 centimeters long and 5 centimeters thick.

According to a team of researchers from the University of Granada, the University of Seville and the Spanish Council for Advanced Studies, the knife is the most sophisticated weapon ever found in prehistoric Iberia in southwestern Spain. It required extremely skilled carving skills.

The knife, believed to be around 5,000 years old, was found with 10 arrowheads, four blades and a core for making weapons.

The researchers believe that the owner of the dagger must have spent a lot of money to buy it. This person may have been an upper-class person.

Crystal was very popular during this period because it symbolized power and ancestral connections.

“The ᴀssociation between the dagger blade and the ivory handle indicates the status of the people who used the object. It may represent a ‘household item’ that only the upper class had access to,” the researchers said.